


I Got Chains

by toomuchgawking



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Multi, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 06:06:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2180799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomuchgawking/pseuds/toomuchgawking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick and Shane. Shane and Rick.</p><p>The pair that've always been and definitely, definitely won't always be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Got Chains

Shane and Rick.

Rick and Shane.

Not quite peas in a pod, not similar enough for that. They're not the same, but people use words like 'complimentary.' Rick has the ideas and Shane's got the follow through. Shane's got the instinct and Rick's got that faith. Shane's been built stocky since middle school, while Rick shoots up long before he shoots out. And those aren't differences that matter much, not in a world where they're both safe. Because it's high school, and neither of them matter enough for anyone to much care about them either way. It leaves them with time, with hours, and Rick watches girls while Shane watches Rick. At least most of the time. Because sometimes - just sometimes, no matter how hard to tries to push it - Rick watches Shane right back. And Shane burns for it.

But it's Georgia, and talk spreads, and boys don't kiss boys, so Shane kisses as many girls as will have him. It's easy, he finds, when you don't care so much. Easy to figure out what to say, or what to do. And he's broad shouldered, and growing taller (catching up with Rick), and girls seems to like that. And then he gets to talk about it, sure to including every excruciating detail, to watch Rick's nose wrinkle up, and his cheeks turn a dull red, like he's inches from squirming in his seat. So sometimes Shane embellishes, sees if he can push it that little bit further. Anyway it's not like he doesn't like girls, not at all.

They're just not as important.

Sometimes he thinks they are, but it never lasts. They never stay important, not for long. Long enough for a toothbrush, or half a drawer, maybe even a picture on a wall. Long enough to be his date when he's best man at Rick's wedding, and somehow he never thought it'd get to this. Not when they first met Lori, not when she and Rick started dating. Not when she was half moved into Rick's apartment, not even when he bought the ring. There's a kind of finality to wedding bells, he thinks, like he hasn't been able to see that finality in the way Rick looks at Lori for a long time.

Sometimes he wishes, faintly, that he'll never have to see Rick look at Lori like that. When he prompts Rick into telling about their fights, and maybe if he were a better person he wouldn't, maybe if he were a worse person he'd try harder to get them turned against each other. He's never been much of either, so it doesn't happen. And then Rick ends up in a coma, and it's the universe playing a very cruel joke because Rick's not looking at Lori but nothing can really get worse. Can it?

(It gets worse).

He'd like to cast Lori as the villain, but they talk and he knows she loves Rick just as much as he'll never admit he does. So instead he kisses her, sitting in the bushes and dust off the highway, half listening out for breaking twigs or steps. He pays attention to the way she kisses because he wants to know the way she was used to it. The way Rick used to kiss her, the way Shane used to imagine being kissed. It's not even just about losing Rick, because up close Lori is fire and iron, and it's not hard to see why Rick fell.

Shane and Lori. Closer to peas in a pod then either of them were with Rick, but that just means they rub up against each other in different ways.

There's Carl, and Shane likes to think that Rick's eyes in the kid's face are looking at him with approval, not judgement.

(Rick actually shows up only he doesn't know so there's nothing in his gaze but gratitude that Shane can't handle and doesn't deserve).

(Shane and Rick or Rick and Lori or Shane and Lori there can't be Shane and Rick and Lori it doesn't work like that, and Shane sees Rick holding his son and his wife close and knows he's the one there's no room for).


End file.
